This eye-opening study served as a wake-up call, exposing the systematic bias that girls face in education. While girls and boys enter school roughly equal in measured ability, by age fifteen girls have poor self-images and constrained views of their futures. In addition to a wealth of data, the report also suggests specific strategies to effect changes. This book catalyzed local, state, and national action, and today few conversations about gender and education in the academic and research communities neglect to mention this watershed report.